CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD
FASTING
DR. JIM DIXON
MATTHEW 6:1 & 16-18
MARCH 25, 2007
In the year 390 AD, a man named Simeon was born in Asia Minor in the Province of Cilicia, what today be Eastern Turkey. That’s where Simeon was born. Simeon became the greatest Monastic of his generation. Today historians call Simeon “Simeon Stylites.” Sometimes they call him “Simon the Stylite.” The name Simeon and the name Simon are simply Greek and Hebrew forms of the same name. The title Stylite comes from the Greek “Stylos” or “Stulos” and this word means “pillar.” Because, you see, Simeon was the first of the pillar sitters. You see, for the last 37 years of Simeon’s life he lived on the top of a pillar. This pillar was 6 feet in diameter so there was room for Simeon to lie down, room for him to sleep, room for him to put some of his bare necessities, but church historians that in the last 37 years of Simeon’s life, he lived for four years on top of an 8-foot pillar. He lived for 3 years on top of an 18-foot pillar. He lived for 10 years on top of a 33-foot pillar and the last 20 years of his life he lived on top of a 60-foot pillar. Servant monks on extended poles gave him food every day. If he was fasting, they didn’t but they gave him food normally and they took his waste away daily and people came from all over the Christian world to see the piety of this famous man Simeon the Stylite.
Theodosius, the Emperor of the Roman Empire, came with a vast entourage just to watch Simeon and his prayer and fasting, living on a pillar. Pope Leo I, the Vicar of Christ, came with another entourage to look at Simeon the Stylite and the crowds came from throughout the Christian world. Oftentimes when they would go to watch him, they would take picnic lunches. It was kind of an entertaining thing to watch Simeon the Stylite. They would gamble on how long his fast would extend. He’s been fasting for ten days. How many think he’s going to fast for eleven? How many think twelve? They would actually make it a form of entertainment and they would count the number of times that he prostrated himself each day in prayer. He would normally prostrate himself in prayer for a thousand times every day. One day, historians tell us, he prostrated himself 1,244 times, each time getting down on his knees, placing his head to the marble on the top of the pillar and praying.
It’s hard for us today to look back and imagine what that was like and why people would do that. Why would somebody live on top of a pillar? Why would people want to watch somebody live on top of a pillar? Why would somebody prostrate themselves in prayer a thousand times a day and why would somebody be so radical, so extreme in their fasting? It’s very difficult for us to understand and of course partly because what Simeon did appears to us to be in clear violation of the explicit teachings of Jesus Christ because Jesus said, “Beware of practicing your piety before men. Beware of practicing your piety before people.” Certainly, what Simeon did was ostentatious. It was an ostentatious kind of asceticism and I think most of us today don’t even understand asceticism. I mean, why would somebody choose to suffer? What would somebody suffer unnecessarily by their own choice and why would somebody practice a life of such extreme self-denial?
I think most of us today really struggle with the whole concept of asceticism and certainly in the world today, the Christian world, we believe in self-denial but really only in two contexts. We believe in self-denial in the context of sin. We want to practice self-denial with regard to sin in order that we might avoid temptation and not fall into sin. Self-denial is necessary in terms of righteousness. Then I think we would practice self-denial for the sake of moderation. Most of us would agree that we want to live lives of appropriate moderation and you need a certain amount of self-control for that but why would you take something that is perfectly good, why would you take something that is a gift from God, something like food, and why would you deny yourself completely for even a season of time? Why would you do that? Why not just eat in moderation? Why fast? Why fast?
We must acknowledge, if we’re fair with the Bible, that there’s a certain amount of asceticism in the Bible. John the Baptist was an ascetic and he went off and lived an unusual life in the wilderness. He did not eat normal food. He did not wear normal clothes. He did not drink normal drink. He wore camel’s hair garments as he wandered in the wilderness. He ate wild locusts and honey. He refused to drink wine and wine was normative in the time of Christ at the midday meal and the evening meal. But John the Baptist didn’t drink it because of self-denial for the sake of his piety and his asceticism. He fasted and he taught his disciples to fast.
Today, we take a look at fasting and how it may relate to us. I have two teachings and they both have to do with the purpose of fasting. The first teaching is this: we fast for the sake of repentance. Have you ever fasted because your heart was broken by sin? Have you ever fasted for the sake of repentance before God?
In the Jewish world, in Israel, there was one day of the year that fasting was mandatory. You might know what that one day was. It was called the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur. In the time of Christ and really throughout Jewish history, fasting was mandatory on the Day of Atonement. It was mandatory because the Day of Atonement was all about sin and you know how it was, on the Day of Atonement, the High Priest, on that one day, would go into the Temple and into the Holy Place and then through the veil into the Holy of Holies. He alone could go there only one day a year, on the Day of Atonement, and he would go in there and sprinkle the blood of animals. He poured the blood of animals on the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant seeking to atone for the sins of the people.
On that same day he took and vested the sin of the people on the scapegoat and then sent the scapegoat into the wilderness, symbolically removing the sin of the people from them. It was all about sin. On that day it was mandatory throughout the nation that people fast for their sin in repentance before God, a day of fasting.
Now we have no such day in the Christian world today. It is true that many Christians do celebrate Ash Wednesday and maybe some of you have celebrated Ash Wednesday. It begins the Lenten Season and of course we’re in the Lenten Season now as we approach Easter. On Ash Wednesday, the priest or the minister places ashes that come from the prior year’s Palm Sunday’s palm branches. They take those ashes and put them on the worshipper’s forehead. Ash Wednesday, ashes on the forehead. This is practiced in Lutheran traditions, Anglican traditions, and Catholic traditions. The ashes were placed on the forehead and then the worshipper, the Christian, wears those ashes on the forehead openly all day, at work, when they go into Starbucks, wherever they go, ashes on the forehead. You’ve seen ashes on their forehead on Ash Wednesday. It’s from two biblical passages. One is Genesis 3 where the Bible says, “We are dust and to dust we shall return” and so the ashes on the forehead are a reminder of our humanity and our mortality, that we are dust and to dust we will return. It’s also taken from Matthew’s Gospel, the 11th chapter where Jesus pronounced judgement upon the cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Jesus pronounced judgement upon them because they refused to repent and Jesus said that if the people of Sodom and Gomorrah or of Tyre and Sidon had seen what they had seen, if they had seen His miracles and heard His words, they would have repented. “They would have repented,” Jesus said, “in sackcloth and in ashes.” So, the ashes on the forehead are a reminder of repentance, a reminder of sin.
Just this last week, somebody sent me an e-mail asking why we at Cherry Hills Community Church do not practice Ash Wednesday. Why do we not celebrate Ash Wednesday? Of course, it’s up to you. There are some people who feel like Ash Wednesday and the wearing of ashes on the forehead is a public display of piety. It’s practicing your piety before men. Some people feel that way. Other people think it’s no different than having an ichthus on your car and just letting the world know you are a Christian, but it’s up to you. It’s between you and God but most people on Ash Wednesday, when they put those ashes on the forehead, begin a fast and it’s a 40-day fast leading up to Easter. They fast from something. It’s not a complete fast. Most people give up something for Lent in conjunction with Ash Wednesday. It might be ice cream. In my case, this Lenten Season I’m giving up rutabaga, the Swedish yellow turnips that are so precious to me.
Of course, that really wouldn’t be a fast. To fast you have to give up something you like, and again it has to do with humility before God, for a season focusing on God. Whenever you think of that thing you’ve given up, you think of God and you think of your need for forgiveness and your need to come before God in repentance and fast for repentance.
Of course, you go to 2 Samuel, chapters 11 and 12, and what do you see? You see David, King of Israel, a great man, a man after God’s own heart, and yet this man as recorded in those two chapters fell into the sin of lust and he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then virtually murdered Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, the great sin of David. What was David’s response when he realized that he was guilty before God and that his sin was grave? What was his response? His response was Psalms 51 and what did David say in Psalms 51? He said, “Have mercy on me O God according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out all of my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin for my transgressions are always before me. Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned and done what is evil in Thy sight so that my sentence is just and Your judgement is just. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward being. Therefore, teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be washed whiter than snow. Fill me with joy and gladness. Let these bones which You have broken rejoice. Hide Your face from my sin and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, oh God. Put a new and right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Your presence. Take not Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of my salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit then I will teach transgressors Your ways and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud with your deliverance. Open O Lord these lips and my mouth will show forth Your praise for you take no delight in sacrifice. Were I to make a burnt offering, You would not be pleased. For the sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.”
So David understood. He understood that the sacrifice that God is looking for is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. How did David express his broken spirit? How did he express a broken and contrite heart? Go back to 2 Samuel and you will see that for David it was prayer and fasting. In his brokenness he began to pray and he began to fast in repentance.
Would you ever consider doing that? I know you probably feel like your sin is not so great, but as we stand before a Holy God we are like filthy rags. Would you ever fast? Would you ever spend a season, a time of prayer and fasting for the sake of cleansing and washing because of sin? Maybe your heart isn’t broken and you know it should be. Maybe there is some sin in your life and maybe it’s been there chronically and you know your heart should be broken but it’s not. You know that you should have a broken and contrite heart, but you don’t. This is how God can use fasting. If you would just choose to fast a little, maybe for one day. Maybe just take a meal and skip just one meal as you begin fasting. Just skip one meal and have a time of prayer. Or maybe you would fast for a longer season, a longer period of time but sometimes through fasting God breaks our heart. As you begin the fast, your heart is not broken but you begin to hunger for God as you practice prayer and fasting and then God breaks your heart and you have a humble, contrite heart and your repentance is more genuine and your cleansing and your washing more pure.
I know that all of you have read something of the life of Abraham Lincoln and you know that on November 19th in 1863 Lincoln gave his Gettysburg Address. It only took him two minutes. If you go back and get out your encyclopedia and you look up the Gettysburg Address, you can read it in two minutes. He said it in two minutes. That same day, a man named Edward Everett spoke. He was a preacher and he spoke at Gettysburg at that same event and he spoke for two hours. He spoke for two hours and Lincoln spoke for two minutes and nobody remembers what Edward Everett said, nobody. But people remember what Abraham Lincoln said because the words were great.
It was that same year, 1863, earlier in the year in the midst of the Civil War on April 30 of 1863, that Lincoln declared a National Day of Prayer and Fasting. Did you know that? April 30, 1863, the President of the United States declared a National Day of Prayer and Fasting. Lincoln said these words in conjunction with that day. “It is the duty of nations as well as of men who owe their dependence upon the overruling power of God to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow. Yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon and to recognize the sublime truth announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by history that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. The awful calamity of Civil War which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people. Intoxicated with unbroken success we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. We have grown in numbers, grown in wealth, grown in power as no other nation has grown, but we have forgotten God” and therefore he declared a day of prayer and fasting for the nation.
If it is true that nations need to fast and pray before God, how much more is it true that individuals do? That we do? So would you ever consider this? Would you ever consider in your life as you live out your days just beginning to fast in conjunction with prayer?
Sometimes people say, “Well, did Jesus fast?” Jesus was not an aesthetic. He did not practice aestheticism, but He did fast before beginning His public ministry as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel, the 4th chapter. He went out into the wilderness on a 40-day fast. Of course, Jesus was different than John the Baptist and so in Matthew, chapter 11 and in Luke, chapter 7, you have the Parable of the Children in the Marketplace and the message of Christ that, if you’re faithful to God, whatever you do you’ll never please the world. Jesus wants His followers to understand as Christians we’re never going to please the world.
Jesus said, “John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking.” What Jesus meant by that was that John the Baptist did not eat normal food and he did not drink wine. It was normal to drink wine. John the Baptist didn’t so Jesus said, “John the Baptist came neither eating nor drinking” and you said, “He has a demon and he’s crazy.” Then Jesus said, “I have come both eating and drinking” and you have said, “Behold, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” So Jesus was saying in conjunction with that when telling the Parable of the Children in the Marketplace that it’s not possible to please this secular world. It’s not about the world anyway.
If you fast or don’t fast, the world probably won’t care and they might think you’re crazy either way. The world thinks people who actually believe in God with a passion are crazy. The truth is it’s all about God. It’s not about the world. It’s about pleasing God and whether you fast or you don’t fast, it’s before God. In your heart and your soul as you pray, you need to ask God what He wants you to do. It may be from time-to-time that He might ask you to fast. He might lead you that way. He might just, in a still small voice, ask you to do this in humility before Him and you’ll never be sorry. We do it for the sake of repentance. We also do it for the sake of power. This is our second and final teaching. We fast for the sake of power.
In Matthew’s Gospel, the 17th chapter, the 21st verse, there’s a controversy. In fact, the odds are that in your Bible, if you were to turn to Matthew 17 and look for verse 21, it’s not there. Most of our Bibles jump from Matthew 17:20 to 17:22 and leave verse 21 out. If you find verse 21, it will be in the margins down at the bottom as a footnote perhaps because, you see, there’s manuscript dispute. There’s a problem with regard to manuscript evidence with regard to Matthew 21. The Codex Sinaiticus, the Codex Vaticanus, the Codex Receptus, they disagree whether Jesus really said these things and whether this was really in Matthew’s Gospel. What is Matthew 17:21? What are we questioning with regard to what Jesus said?
Jesus had just gone up on the Mount of Transfiguration and he was transfigured. He was unveiled, His deity manifested. He had taken with Him Peter, James, and John. They came down from the holy mountain and the rest of the disciples had been trying to heal a child who was being possessed and could not. They could not cast out this demon. Jesus came down the mountain and the crowds came up to Jesus and asked Him if He could help and Jesus did. Jesus healed this child. Then the disciples said to Jesus, “Why weren’t we able to do that? Why weren’t we able to heal this child? Why weren’t we able to cast out this demon?” Jesus said, “This kind of demon can only come out with much prayer and fasting.”
Now did Jesus really say those words? We don’t know. There is manuscript dispute. We know in Mark’s Gospel, the 9th chapter, the 29th verse, Jesus said a similar thing and there’s better manuscript evidence. We also know throughout the Bible, just as prayer and fasting are joined, so is the power of God released oftentimes through fasting. We see this in the Bible and when we pray and when we fast, the power of God is released.
Would you like more of the power of God in your life? Do you ever want more of God’s power? Would you like more of His power for your children and your parenting? Would you like more of His power in your marriage? In your career or at work or in your health and your body? Would you like more of God’s power? One of the teachings of scripture is that sometimes God blesses us through prayer and fasting in this way.
You come to 1 Corinthians, chapter 7, verse 5 and the Apostle Paul tells married couples, “You should come together as a married couple romantically and sexually and don’t deny each other because the husband’s body does not belong to himself. It belongs to the wife. The wife’s body does not belong to herself. It belongs to the husband. So you come together and you meet each other’s needs,” but He says, “You might, as a married couple, as Christians, by mutual agreement, fast from sexual relations for a period of time for the sake of God’s blessing” because of some special need in your life.
There is all kinds of fasting in the Bible. Fasting is not just with regard to food. You could fast as a married couple. Obviously, people who aren’t married aren’t supposed to have sex biblically. The Bible tells us that sex is a beautiful gift meant to be opened only within the context of marriage and it’s an expression of union between the husband and the wife. Fasting can take many forms. You could fast from food. You could fast from sexual relations. You could also fast from television for a week. Maybe fast from television for a month and you focus on God, your humility before Him. Maybe fast from sports (I know that’s a radical thought). Fasting can take many, many different forms but it’s for the sake of blessing as we humble ourselves before God. As we combine our fasting with prayer, our prayers seem more effectual.
You come to the Book of Acts, chapter 13, and you see Paul and Barnabas about to go forth into ministry and they’re leaving Antioch to go into ministry and they’re taking off on a journey and the leaders of the church lay hands on them, pray over them, and then they go for an extended period of time with prayer and fasting. They have a number of days where they just pray and fast before Paul and Barnabas go into ministry. For the sake of God’s power, for the empowerment of their ministry that God might bless their ministry and protect them. Fasting.
You come to Ezra, chapter 8, in the Old Testament, and you see Ezra leading the Jewish people on a journey from Babylon where they’ve been in captivity to Jerusalem. It’s a thousand-mile journey that Ezra is taking with his people. He’s given permission to go by Artaxerxes I, given permission by the king, and Ezra has told the king, “I don’t need you to send any soldiers with me. I don’t need any guards for protection. I know it’s a thousand-mile journey but God will take care of us. God will protect us.” So they leave Babylon, Ezra and his fellow Jews, and they come to the River Ahava. As they came to that river, the sought the power of God. How did they do that? They entered into a 3-day time of prayer and fasting, asking for God’s power and protection to come upon them for this thousand-mile journey. It’s in the Bible and there’s no denying that fasting can be combined with prayer in a longing for the power of God in our life. Of course, this is true in ministry throughout Christian history.
In 2001, Barbara and I were on the Island of Iona. We were at a monastic community there in a monastery. This is a Scottish island off the coast of Scotland. We were there when 9/11 took place with Al Qaeda performing that horrible act and that attack and assault on innocent people. We were in shock and Barb and I very much wanted to be home because we wanted to be here in the United States but there we were on the Island of Iona, It’s just a little island, 1-1/2 miles wide and 3 miles long. It’s pretty much barren, just rock and grass and surrounded by sea but there’s this monastery there, a monastic community, and the people there were so great. As we went into the cathedral to pray, they had American flags there and they had “God Bless America” up on the altar. The monks and the Christians in the community had written out prayers for America and posted them everywhere. They were just very supportive. It was a wonderful place to be in the midst of our fear and our pain and sorrow. It was just a great place to be because you feel the presence of God there at Iona. It’s one of the five greatest monastic centers in the world. It all began with St. Columba who came to that island in the year 565 AD. In the 6th century, 565 AD, St. Columba came from Ireland to Scotland and he stopped there on this little island of Iona and he built the monastery and began a monastic community. The whole ministry there began with prayer and fasting. It was all bathed in prayer and fasting and they’re still praying and they’re still fasting in that monastic community today. The ministry continues because the power of God is upon it. God has chosen to bless it.
On that same trip we went to a monastic community in Lindisfarne, on the Island of Lindisfarne called Holy Island, another one of the five great monastic communities in the world. It’s off the coast of England and it all began with St. Aidan. In the year 635 he came to Lindisfarne and began the monastic community there and he began it with prayer and fasting. That’s how it all began. They are still fasting. They are still praying on Holy Island in that monastic community and God and His power is upon it. He has chosen to bless the Christian community in North Umbria because of this.
You can look through church history and you can look at churches. You can look at the parachurch, Campus Crusade for Christ. It began with prayer and fasting. Some of the greatest ministries that have gone forth to the nations began with prayer and fasting as people came humbly before God seeking His blessing and seeking His power.
Across the street is Valor High School. You can see it going up and we’re excited. There was a fire there at Valor this week. Some of you may have noticed that, as the flames kind of rose from the ceiling. God protected the building. The damage was very minimal and it’s still going to open on time and things are going great. Some of you have asked me questions about Valor. You wonder if it’s going to be too hard for your kids to get in or if it’s going to cost too much money. This is a ministry and we want to sit down with parents and make it work. There are going to be scholarships. We can make it work financially because it’s a ministry. Kids are going to grow up and stand for Christ because of this high school and it’s beginning with prayer and fasting. It’s a ministry birthed in prayer and fasting because we want the power of God. We want the anointing of God. We want the blessing of God.
So in your life, do you want the power of God in your marriage and in your parenting, in your career and in your health and your ministry in any area? If you want His anointing and His blessing and His power, I would ask you today – I think God would ask you today – to consider the privilege of combining prayer and fasting. I hope you understand fasting is a spiritual exercise. It’s not the same as a hunger strike. We’re not saying to God, “I’m not going to eat until You do this and I’ll die if You don’t do this.” It’s not a hunger strike.
If you saw the movie “Exodus,” you know that Exodus was the name of the ship off Cyprus. It had been renamed by the Jews and 600 Jews on the Exodus sought entrance into Palestine or Israel in the year 1948. That movie starred Paul Newman and Eva Marie Saint and they conducted a fast, which was really a hunger strike on the Exodus; 600 Jews refusing to eat and willing to die and saying to the British government, “Unless you let us into Israel, we’re just going to sit here and die. We’re not going to eat unless you let us into Israel.” Hunger strikes are an effort to manipulate the powers that be.
Gandhi conducted hunger strikes, seeking to manipulate governments and events, but fasting is different. Fasting is spiritual. You’re not trying to manipulate God. Oftentimes the person who is most changed in fasting is you. As God works in our lives through fasting, we find our relationship with Christ strengthened and there’s greater intimacy there. We begin to see through His eyes.
There’s a little clip, a wonderful little clip once again from the movie Bruce Almighty. I just want you to see it. Morgan Freeman plays the part of God and of course Jim Carrey is in the movie.
“What do you want me to do?” “I want you to pray son. Go ahead. Use them.” “Uhm, Lord, feed the hungry and bring peace to all of mankind. How’s that?” “Great, if you want to miss America. Now come on, what do you really care about?” “Grace.” “Grace, you want her back?” “No, I want her to be happy, no matter what that means. I want her to find someone who will treat her with all the love she deserved from me. I want her to meet someone who will see her always as I do now, through your eyes.” “Now that’s a prayer.” “Yeah, yeah, it’s good.” “It’s good.”
I like that scene. The whole movie really is about God wanting to transform us. That’s really what it’s about but what I like about that little scene is that through prayer, you are learning to see through the eyes of God, learning to see other people through the eyes of God, learning to see the world through the eyes of God, learning to see events through the eyes of God. It’s not just true about prayer. It’s about fasting too. When we fast, it’s all about seeing things through the eyes of God, seeing our lives through the eyes of God, seeing ourselves through the eyes of God, our friends, our loved ones, our marriages, our kids, the world itself through the eyes of God.
So God wants us to consider the spiritual discipline. It’s a very big and huge subject. We’re concluding our series on prayer. Prayer is just a massive subject, but it’s been a good journey and I feel like even fasting and prayer have some unusual applications. As we close, I do want to mention prayers of imprecation. Perhaps you’ve never heard of prayers of imprecation, but prayers of imprecation have to do with vindication, judgment, and righteousness. Sometimes in the Bible, God’s people are led to pray and to fast for the judgment of God to come and for God to vindicate His people. You might think, “I’m not sure I’d ever want to pray like that or fast for that,” but I think I would.
When you look at the world we live in and you look at issues like pornography, a multi-billion-dollar business; pornography, which taints the souls of men and women and degrades men and women. Corporations are getting rich off of it. I think it’s appropriate to pray and to fast and to seek the righteousness of God and the judgment of God upon those who perpetrate such evils.
It’s a difficult time in which we live, a difficult time, but prayer and fasting have many applications. I do hope that you will consider, as part of your spiritual discipline, just even a short period of prayer and fasting and give it a chance for God’s sake. Let’s close with a word of prayer